I wanted to share my favorite Christmas decoration this year … floating ornaments.

We hung the ornaments from the ceiling, directly in-line and above our bar, using little screw eyelets & clear thread (found in the sewing section of any store that carries that stuff). If anyone happens to do this in their home as well, please share a picture. I would really LOVE to see it!

Now, answering a few more of your questions:

[ party invites ]

The program I used for Porter’s party invitation (Dec. 3 post) is Adobe Photoshop, and it’s the same program I use for all of my photo editing (and other creative things) too.

[ bag toppers ]

Also in reference to the Dec. 3 post … That’s just a simple text box in a Word document (or Pages, for those of you Mac users). The font is called Rockwell.

[ printing cards ]

I was asked about printing my hybrid or digital cards. For ME (everyone does their own thing), I am all about having them printed at Costco. I can upload them at costco.com and pick them up in an hour. Easy. And even though I print most of my pictures in a glossy finish (I like the more “crisp” look), I print my cards & invites & things that will be “handled” with a matte finish. If you wanted them to be thicker, you could certainly print them on thicker cardstock at home or at a local copy shop.

[ canadian site ]

Kay asked if she could share a great site in Canada that sells the albums that I use (Oct. 30 post). Absolutely! Go ahead, Kay, and post it here in these comments so all our Canadian friends can check it out. Thanks!

[ stuffing mix ]

For my chicken noodle casserole (May 21 post), I used the Pepperidge Farm “Herbed Seasons” stuffing mix. I’m sure any other kind would be great, too. That’s just my preference.

[ e-mail me ]

And old friend from high school posted a comment because she wanted to contact me regarding an upcoming reunion. (Hi Lesley!) So … If anyone needs to contact me personally, my e-mail is bhiggins@ckmedia.com. I do read every comment that is posted on my blog, but can’t possibly respond to it all. I’m sure you understand. : )

[ the layouts-to-do list! ]

Here you go, girls!! It’s SUPER simple. A Excel file to keep track of your layouts-to-do. Because I keep family albums, as well as albums for Porter & Claire, I keep track of all of the layouts I want to do in this one file. That way I can see, at a glance, everything.

layoutstodo.xls

This is how I use the running list: I note which album the layout would go in (my chronological books are numbered) or I put a “P” for Porter, a “C” for Claire. The date is the date of the event, or if it’s a thematic/non-chronological type of layout, I put the approximate date of where it seems to fit best (ex – “Fall 2007″). The topic – well, it’s just obvious what that is. : )

The next few spaces are where I put an “x” if that part of the layout is done … photos are printed | the pages are done | the journaling is complete. Sometimes I do a bunch of photoshopping for several layouts and get them all printed, so I mark that box, indicating that I have the pictures ready but I still need to complete the page and write the journaling.

I hope this makes sense. I’ve been using this system for many years and it totally works for me. It’s ever-changing, of course. Whenever I think of a fun topic that I want to scrapbook, I immediately add it to my list so I don’t have to try to remember it. And of course I keep all of my “obvious-to-scrapbook” topics here, too (birthdays, trips, etc.).

Thank you for your feedback about the card kit. You guys are awesome.

If you got your January issue of Creating Keepsakes, you may have seen my “Snow Day Survival Kit” feature. Fun projects for you & the kids on a homebound day. One of the projects I did was this big clipboard, which can hold art or calendar pages or whatever you want. See the article on p. 73 for more details.

Go here to download the 2008 calendar pages (it’s FREE) … even if you use them for something other than the big clipboard idea. : )

Thank you, Meg, for bringing it to my attention that some people are experiencing an issue with mailing their Christmas cards from my kit.

First of all, I would never try to mislead anyone. We honestly sent the completed cards (assembled, as you would send them) before we made them available for purchase, and had no problems with the postage. Here’s what we did to ensure cards could be mailed for $0.41:

- Matched postal regs in weight and size exactly
- Took samples into the post office and had them confirm $0.41 cent postage
- Sent a couple samples from different post offices using $0.41 with both metered and stamped postage. We included a couple papers to represent a family Christmas letter.

In fact, I just got my parents’ Christmas card yesterday (they’re so cute to use my card kit!). The $0.41 stamp worked like a charm. Yes, they included a picture and their text was printed on cardstock. All of this was included in the card.

So from what I can tell, most of you are NOT having a problem. Thank goodness. Unfortunately there are a few of you who may and I’m very, very sorry about that. Seriously – I’m so bummed about it. It seems to be an inconsistency issue with USPS. You may want to mail the cards and don’t ask the post office if you need to pay more because they’ll say “yes” and take your money. But that’s up to you, and I can’t guarantee anything.

It makes me crazy that a few post offices are not being cool about this.

Hey – while we’re on the subject, if you have some constructive feedback on my Christmas card kit, I’d love to know. This will help me understand what you like & what you don’t for my next card kit. : )

Have a happy day.

Five minutes before I was to leave for my carpool run to pre-school today, I realized that every good mom brings treats to school when their child has a birthday. Right? So I resorted to the fastest-ever, last-minute thing I could come up with a pinch. I was a printing-cutting-stapling MACHINE for those 5 minutes. And still made it to pre-school in time. : )

WAY simple bag toppers. Thank goodness we already had the fruit snacks on-hand! The inspiration for this simple little concoction was already there. This is what we had done for the party favors.

And these were his invites. 100% digital.

Porter’s (ultra simple) party was so much fun. Cake & ice cream. Pinada (which David had to finally bust). Presents.

Sometimes simple is best. The kids just loved running around & playing together. That’s really the best part. Can’t believe how blessed we are to have so many fun friends here. Can’t believe our baby’s five.